ROV's New Mail Ballot System

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The San Diego County Registrar of Voters is using a new mail ballot system that can process up to 24,000 return mail ballot envelopes per hour. The new Pitney Bowes Relia-Vote Mail Balloting System is over 56 feet long and fills an entire room at the Registrar of Voters office. Almost 50% of county voters now vote by mail, and this machine greatly reduces the time needed to sort the ever-increasing number of ballots.

HHSA Program Helps Prevent Childhood Lead Poisoning

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HHSA's Childhood Lead Prevention Program teamed up with several community partners to offer free lead testing during National Lead Prevention Week. The event was held at Cherokee Point Elementary School in City Heights. More than 300 children were tested throughout the day.

The County’s Health and Human Services Agency’s (HHSA) Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program began an early prevention initiative in 2004 to provide services to children with lower lead levels. Since then, the number of children with elevated levels of lead in their blood has decreased by 61 percent. The only sure way to know a child is lead poisoned is to have the child tested. More than 49,000 children in San Diego County were tested in 2009.

“Early detection of lead poisoning is critical,” said Supervisor Ron Roberts, District 4, San Diego County Board of Supervisors. “Lead is a silent attacker that can cause severe developmental problems in children and chronic exposure to even low levels of lead can have serious consequences.”

“Lead poisoning is preventable,” said Nick Macchione, Director of HHSA. “Many people have the perception that the danger of lead poisoning has gone away since the lead in paint was removed beginning in 1979. But some San Diego County residents live in housing built prior to that year and paint is still the number one source of lead poisoning in our children, followed by home remedies and pottery.”

For more information about lead poisoning, visit www.sdlead.org or call 619-515-6694.

HHSA's Kitty Roche Earns Statewide Honor

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Kitty Roche, a Public Health Nurse Manager in the Health and Human Services Agency was the recipient of the Senator Daniel Boatwright Award presented at the California State Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) Conference.

The award is California’s highest honor for individuals working in SIDS. Roche was honored for her many contributions to Californians touched by SIDS. The recongnition specifically mentioned her role in creating the letter sent to hospitals promoting the importance of safe sleep instructions to new parents before taking their baby home.

Roche is a member of the California State SIDS Advisory Council.

County Offers Tire Recycling Days

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Residents of Lakeside, Ramona and the surrounding unincorporated areas in San Diego County can recycle their used passenger tires for free at separate "Tire Amnesty-Day" events on Oct. 23 and Nov. 6.

Since the State banned disposal of whole tires at landfills in California in 1993, the County of San Diego has offered amnesty days and public education for recycling and disposal of tires funded partially through state grants.

 

County Debuts New Operations Center

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The County of San Diego Board of Supervisors debuted two new 150,000-square-feet, four-story office buildings today at its County Operations Center, which is being redeveloped to replace a cluster of outdated and inefficient buildings. The new buildings were designed and constructed to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold standards.

“These new buildings are wonderful examples of environmentally-friendly architectural design and will be at the new gateway to the campus,” said Chairwoman Pam Slater-Price.

This $188.5 million first phase of the COC development construction project includes the two office buildings, a new central plant, utility infrastructure, and a multi-level parking structure with more than 1,800 parking spaces, which will be complete in February. 

Nine County departments and their 1,100 employees will start moving into the buildings this weekend. The departments include: General Services, Library, Aging & Independence Services, Sheriff, Purchasing & Contracting, Public Works, Auditor, Environmental Health and Parks & Recreation.

“Co-locating many of these departments allows the County to operate more efficiently,” said Vice-Chairman Bill Horn.

Supervisor Ron Roberts, a former architect, said, “For decades to come now, the new County Operations Center will provide the public with better accessibility to key services.”

The environmental design extends to the landscaping.

“In this third year of drought, the design team selected low-water-consumption and low-maintenance plants and groundcover, which serves as an attractive example to the public,” said Supervisor Dianne Jacob.

“This project created hundreds of construction jobs and will ultimately save taxpayers money by replacing aging, inefficient buildings with a modern, energy-saving campus,” said Supervisor Greg Cox.

The next phase of construction will involve the two buildings that mirror the ones that debuted today and a 15,000-square-foot conference center.

HHSA Honors Foster Families and Promotes Strategy Agenda

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More than 750 adults and foster children attended the 25th Annual Foster Family Picnic at Admiral Baker Field.  The fun-filled day was hosted by HHSA Foster and Adoptive Resource Family Services and the Foster Parent Recognition Coalition, with help from generous community partners. 

The County’s Health Strategy Agenda was promoted at booths sponsored Public Health and the Women, Infant and Children (WIC) program.  Public Health Nurse Anita Secor and WIC staff provided information about health and nutrition to help foster families eat well and stay healthy.  Families enjoyed apples, bananas, and other healthy food items.  They also received toothbrushes and BPA-free water bottles. 

Child Welfare Services staff from each region ran activity booths for children.  Other County contributors included Options for Recovery, Polinsky Children’s Center and the Probation Department.  Lunch and activities were provided by community donors including the Boomerang Gourmet Burger Joint, California Fruit Company, CVS Pharmacy, Islands Restaurants, National Exchange Club, San Diego All Star Clowns, and Souplantation.

Children enjoyed petting llamas and therapy dogs and highlights of the day included characters from the San Diego Star Wars Society raffling a collection of Star Wars collectibles donated by Gabriel Andres Martinez, and ten brand new bicycles donated by National City Rotary Club.

HHSA's Aging & Independence Services Receives Statewide Challenge Award

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The Health and Human Services Agency's Aging & Independence Services received a Challenge Award from the California State Association of Counties (CSAC) at the Oct. 14 County Board of Supervisors Meeting. AIS was honored for its innovative TEAM SAN DIEGO program.

TEAM SAN DIEGO is a training program for healthcare and social service providers to improve service delivery to the aging and disabled populations, especially those with chronic conditions. The program consists of eight online modules, self-contained slide presentations that are recorded by a different, highly regarded local instructor who is an expert on the subject matter presented, and one in-class session to reinforce and practice the lessons learned.

The goal of this program is for multiple providers to work together to improve access to comprehensive and coordinated health and social programs for individuals with complex needs. The program works to improve care coordination that will allow the chronically ill to remain independent in the community and reduce unnecessary emergency room visits, hospitalizations, and nursing home admissions.

Although the program is still in progress, 125 health, social, and supportive service providers have completed the training so far.